Bitter gourd vegetable with poori

Hello friends! My today's post is one which I am really not fond of and well I can say  I never tasted it nor do I like it but Hubby dear and daughter dear wanted me to make this. I love just one part of this bitter dish which I would explain as I show you.. Bitter gourd is like its name bitter karela and I can't tell you the exact taste of the vegetable I made as I didn't taste it but going by the reactions  and comments it did come out well. I have made three times this same dish but only on one occasion did the bitterness reduce a lot. So here goes the dish.

Ingredients:

• 3 bitter gourds/karela
• 1 tomato
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1tsp cumin seeds
• 1tbsp oil
• 2 green chillies
• salt to taste
• 1tsp  turmeric powder
• 1tsp red chilli powder
• 1tsp amchur powder
• 1tsp coriander powder
• a pinch of asafoetida/hing
• coriander leaves to garnish

Method:
Scrape off the rough skin of karela. Do not peel it just scrape it off as rough pieces. Do not discard this. Chop it finely and rub salt and keep it aside. Cut the karela in small roundels and wash and rub salt and keep it for an hour or so. Keep the scrapped skin and karela pieces separate. Here is the tip which would remove the bitterness. First wash the scrapped pieces  nicely in lot of water after rubbing salt and waiting time of an hour. Keep that separate and same way wash in loads of water and squeeze out the water from roundels too. This way most bitterness would surely go. This I am saying based on answers from hubby and daughter that they didn't find the  bitterness in the dish.

Next in the pan, heat oil and add jeera. Once it splutters add hing and chopped green chillies. Add chopped onions and saute it. Add ginger garlic paste and saute more. Now add chopped tomatoes and  karela roundels. Add little water and salt to taste. Cover and let it cook till tomato and karela is done. Open the lid and add the remaining masalas and coriander leaves and mix nicely. Your dish is done. 
But wait, the scrapped skin is there still. So what do you do with it? This is my secret and this the only part of karela I do like. You make poori or  roti out of that skin and here is how..


Ingredients for poori:

• 1 cup wheat flour
• scrapped karela pieces
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chili powder

Method:
Wash the karela pieces nicely so bitterness goes away.  In a bowl take flour and add all the things mentioned for poori. Mix and make a poori dough. Roll out poori and fry in the oil. Or make roti and cook on tawa. Its done.  The karela skin poori tastes very good and this I enjoy a lot as it tastes just like masala poori.  Try it and you won't regret.

Hope you like this and would try it out.

Read More

Lotus stem with potato/kamal kakdi...

Hello all! Today I am going to show you one dish made from lotus stem. It is also called kamal kakdi in hindi and bhey in Sindhi language.  Its made in gravy style as well as dry dish. I have made it dry and included potato in it.  So lets start.

Ingredients:

4-5 big thick  lotus stems or kamal kakdi

2 boiled potatoes

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1/4tsp amchur or dry mango powder

1/4tsp  red chilli powder

1/4tsp  coriander/cumin powder

Salt to taste

1tbsp oil

2green chillies cut in slits

Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

Wash the dirt of the lotus stems/kamal kakdi nicely so all the dirt comes out. Scrape out the outer skin and  finally boil the kamal kakdi.  Once boiled remove from heat, let it cool and cut them in bit thick circles.  Dice the potatoes as well.  In a pan heat oil, add green chillies, stir it for a min and add kamal kakdi and potatoes. Stir it nicely then add all the above spices except coriander leaves,  stir it so all masalas are coated to  potato and lotus stem,  take it off heat and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve  with chapatti or rotis.

The taste of lotus stem is different but I can assure you its very much tasty dish and it has bit of crunchy taste. Try it and I am sure you would love it.  Over to you for feedback.

Optional: I have made it without onion,garlic or tomato.You can add extra flavours early into cooking too.

Read More

Grilled paneer bhurji sandwich.

Hi everyone!  My today's recipe is very simple but I just twisted it a bit. Everyone loves sandwiches, right? We all think of making new fillings and grill, bake and toast. This time I thought let me try something of mix and match. I made paneer bhurji after a long time though and it tasted yummy. Normally I make sandwiches with usual vegetables and at times I do grill it but this time I stuffed it with paneer bhurji. I am sure all of you have your way of making paneer bhurji and here I twisted it a bit. So before you jump on to the computer screen, let's begin making sandwiches.

Ingredients:

1/4kg paneer

1 tomato

1 onion 

1/4 inch ginger

1 capsicum

1 green chilli

1/4tsp cumin seeds/jeera

1/4tsp turmeric powder/haldi

1/4tsp  coriander powder

1/4tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp Dry mango powder/amchur powder

salt to taste

1tbsp oil

coriander leaves to garnish

Bread slices and butter for sandwich

Method:

Chop onions, tomato, capsicum, and ginger in small pieces and keep aside.In a pan, heat oil. Add onions and stir it till it becomes translucent. Add jeera, ginger and green chilli. Stir it and add capsicum. After a minute, add tomatoes. Stir it for two minutes only. Add all the dry masalas and mix the whole thing. Finally add crumbled paneer and mix well. Add coriander leaves and leave it aside in a plate.

Butter the bread on one side and spread paneer mixture on it. Cover the slice with another buttered side of bread.

Grill the sandwich and serve it hot with chutney or sauce.

The taste was great and my family really loved this. Try it and let me know what you think.

                                                                   Paneer Bhurji

                                                                Grilled sandwich

                                                                  Paneer Bhurji filling

Sending this to Divya's event  'The Master Chef Contest' 

Read More

Mix vegetables in spinach gravy

Hello everyone! My today’s recipe is  mix vegetables in spinach gravy. Earlier I used to make plain spinach and  well not all liked it so had been experimenting. Two months back I made koftas/dumplings in spinach gravy and it was well received.  Last year  I had gone on a weekend break to Alibaug  and while returning from there we stopped at Khargar to have our lunch. My dad loves spinach and  since my parents  don’t  eat onion garlic they ordered spinach without  them.  The dish which came was really yummy with loads of vegetables and even without onion and garlic it still tasted awesome.  Since then I have made it a lot of times.  And as my son doesn’t like spinach this way he has it without any complaints. I have included onion and garlic though and you can skip it if you don’t like or don’t want to have them in your gravy.

Ingredients for gravy:

I made same type of gravy in kofta dish so just would copy it again here.

2 bunch of spinach washed and boiled (spinach reduces after boil)

1 onion cut in small pieces
1tbsp ginger garlic paste                                         

2 green chillies  cut in small pieces

1tomato cut in small pieces.

Salt to taste

1tsp garam masala powder

1tsp amchur powder

1tbsp oil or ghee

Method:

Boil spinach in vessel, drain out water and make a puree of it.  Keep it aside. In another pan put ghee or oil to heat. Put ginger garlic paste to sauté for a min, and then add onions, sauté it again till raw smell of onion goes. Add green chillies and tomato. Stir it for a min and add little water for tomatoes to cook. Bring to boil and then add salt, garam masala powder and amchur powder. Switch off the gas and put all this mixture of onion tomatoes in mixer and make puree of it.  Mix this with spinach puree and keep it aside.

Mix vegetables:

I have used cauliflower,potato, peas,carrots,and tomato here.  You can add paneer also later.

Take one cup of these mix vegetables and boil them with little salt. Take them off the heat, drain water and add the vegetables in the spinach gravy.

Your  vegetables with spinach gravy is ready and since I love butter I topped a bit of it for garnishing. Do let me know what you think of this.

 submitting this to:

Read More

Mix vegetables in dal

Hello everyone! My today’s recipe is inspired by Aarthi’s blogpost and I thought I would give it a try. I have made few variations from what she made.I had made this about 2months back when I saw at her blog but just kept it pending to post.

Recipe source: Aarthi ..@ Yummy Tummy

We all make  dal in different ways and at times plain dal becomes boring so lets do mummy ka magic here.

Ingredients:

1cup tur dal  , washed and soaked for  30mins

1tsp haldi (turmeric powder,

1tsp jeera (cumin seeds)

1tsp rai  (mustard seeds)

1tsp urad dal 

Pinch of hing (asaephotida)

1tsp red chilli powder

1tsp garam masala powder

1tsp coriander powder

1tsp amchur powder

Salt to taste.

Few curry leaves,

3 green chillies, cut in small pieces

2 dry red chillies  broken in pieces

1onion sliced

2cloves of garlic crushed

2tbsp oil

1 cup of mix vegetables of your choice.

Here I have used tomatoes, carrots, brinjal, okra, gwar, yam (sooran) and cauliflower cut and mix them all  in one cup.

Method:

In pressure cooker boil  dal in usual way. In a pan put oil, sauté onions, then put jeera, rai and green chillies, stir them and then add  urad dal, curry leaves, dry red chillies,garlic and hing. Stir for a min then add all the vegetables. Stir and and put some water so they cook nicely.

Add salt and all spices and keep it aside after they have been cooked. Take dal out of  pressure cooker and mash it a bit. Add water and add salt and turmeric powder. Be careful with salt here as we had added it in the vegetables.  Mix the cooked vegetables in dal and stir it. Let it come to one or two boils.

Voila your dal with vegetables is ready.

Serve it hot and garnish with coriander leaves and a dash of butter. You can leave out butter but I just simple love the look of butter on top.

Read More

Vegetable Keema

Hello all!  My today’s recipe came as result of experiments and inspiration from my blogger friend Radhika and her amazing blog TicklingPalates. I was not sure how it would turn out as I had read her recipe only once but was determined to try out. But when I planned to make my computer was busy so couldn’t  check how she made it. 

Call it what ever you want to but my son calls it gobhi bhurji.  Hope you like this as I made variations from what Radhika made.

Ingredients:

1  large cauliflower or 2 medium sized

1/2cup  peas ( I used frozen peas here)

1  onion grated

2  tomatoes chopped into small pieces

2 garlic cloves crushed 

2tsp  red chilli powder

1tsp garam masala powder

1tsp turmeric  powder

1tsp coriander/cumin powder

Salt to taste

2tbsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

3tbsp oil for shallow frying

1tbsp oil to sauté

Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

Wash and clean the cauliflower and grate it. In a pan put 3tbsp oil,heat it and shallow fry the grated cauliflower and keep stirring it to prevent it from burning. Let cauliflower become little brown.  Once done remove in plate and keep it aside.

Use same pan and add 1tbsp oil, add onions and sauté it for a min or two till it turns translucent, add crushed garlic and sauté it too. Add tomatoes and all masalas above except kasuri methi.  Stir it and add peas to it. Put some water and keep on slow flame to cook.

After few mins the tomatoes would resemble gravy then add shallow fried grated cauliflower to it.  Add more water for required consistency and let it cook some time on slow flame.

Once cauliflower is also done add kasuri methi and stir and switch off the gas.   Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with puri, roti, paratha or naan.

I had some  of this delightful dish left over so next day stuffed my sandwich with it and the taste was still awesome.

Enjoy this dish and once again special thanks to Radhika  for this recipe. I had changed few things from her original dish.

The end verdict at my home was YUMMY. So what's your verdict!!!

Read More

Kofta in spinach gravy

Hello! Welcome to my space again. Today's recipe koftas in spinach gravy was told to me by my sister-in-law.  My son never liked spinach and I had to coax him many times telling him you would become just like Popeye the sailor man and he would still refuse to eat spinach.

Since then I tried mix and match version and this recipe is result of those experiments.

But before I begin, since I use quantity as I see fit so the measurements I give below may not be accurate.  You are free to adjust them as you see it fit.

Ingredients:

For gravy:

2 bunch of spinach washed and boiled (spinach reduces after boil)

1 onion cut in small pieces
1tbsp ginger garlic paste                                         

2 green chillies  cut in small pieces

1tomato cut in small pieces.

Salt to taste

1tsp garam masala powder

1tsp amchur powder

1tbsp oil or ghee

Method:

Boil spinach in vessel, drain out water and make a puree of it.  Keep it aside. In another pan put ghee or oil to heat. Put ginger garlic paste to sauté for a min, and then add onions, sauté it again till raw smell of onion goes. Add green chillies and tomato. Stir it for a min and add little water for tomatoes to cook. Bring to boil and then add salt, garam masala powder and amchur powder. Switch off the gas and put all this mixture of onion tomatoes in mixer and make puree of it.   Mix this with spinach puree and keep it aside.

Koftas:

Ingredients:

4-5 potatoes boiled and peeled

½ cup bread crumbs or 4-5 bread pieces soaked in water and squeezed.

Salt to taste

1/2tsp amchur powder

1/2tsp coriander& cumin powder

1tsp red chili powder

1tsp garam masala powder

1/4cup coriander leaves cut

( you can add vegetables of your choice but here I kept plain)

Oil to deep fry

Method:

Mash potatoes and add all the items mentioned for kofta above.  Make small lemon sized balls of it and deep fry them.   Take them out of pan and keep on kitchen paper to soak extra oil

Before serving heat the spinach gravy for some time.  On a plate or bowl put spinach gravy first and add koftas.  If u add koftas before they would break.

For garnish I used a spoonful of butter.

End result came out as the picture below and my son happily ate his spinach.

I hope I was clear with instructions above and as a home maker  I use quantity as per my guesswork. So I am sure all you cooks would be able to make this as per your need.

Enjoy making this kofta dish and let me know how it turned out for you.

Submitting  this dish to:    
  Sizzling Tastebuds

  

Srav's Culinary concepts

Hema's Vantagadi

 

 

 

Sharing this with Minnie's  dinner extravaganza

Read More

New year.. new dish using carrots

Hello everyone! Wishing you all a very happy new year. I know it has been some days since the 1^st of January happened. Better late than never eh….

Today I bring for you one of my very simple dish and easy to make. Good for those who prefer less oil, less chilli, less sugar even…

Serves 2 people and increase quantities according to your need.

Ingredients:

                                                                     2  large thick carrots. (Preferably the red pink  one not the bright orange.) cut into 1 inch long pieces (ALMOST THE  SIZE OF FRENCH FRIES)

1green chilli  slit length wise

1/4tsp  rai or mustard seeds

1/2tbsp oil

1tbsp  besan or gram flour (optional)

1tbsp sugar ( optional)

Salt to taste

1/4tsp haldi powder or turmeric powder

Method:

In a pan  heat oil, then put mustard seeds,stir till it splutters, add green chilli, stir once more, add carrots. Stir them, add salt and  turmeric powder and mix well.

Here I add a little 4tbsp water for carrots to soften and quickly cook. Cover and cook on slow heat for 2 mins.  Check if carrots have softened and increase heat and stir again. Again here I add besan but if you don’t want you can skip this part. Besan would stick to carrots and soak out extra water. Add sugar if you wish and any case carrots have their own sweetness. Stir and take out of the heat.

Serve hot  with roti or puri  and for garnish use  cut coriander leaves.

I  have kept it mild and you are free to improvise on this by increasing chilli and leaving out sugar and besan.

The above is my method of cooking but there is another way. Do not add water. cover the vessel and cook carrots on low heat. Keep checking in between to see if its cooked then add besan and sugar if you wish and this would be bit of dry method.

Tip: always put little quantity of any masala and taste before serving. Once you add more salt then it gets difficult to reduce it in some cases.

Enjoy and do let me know by your comments if you cooked it. 

Submitted to
MurariAnniversary-Giveaway-2012 @ Hema's Blog.

Read More